Today the American River is known for its whitewater rapids.The American River is divided into the North, Middle, and South forks that contain recreational havens for well over one million visitors per year in El Dorado County, Placer County, and Sacramento County in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of northern California. It meanders through additional wilderness recreational canyons past the site of the abandoned Auburn Dam, and back into wilderness, onward to where it meets the South Fork at Folsom Lake.